Mediation

AdMob Mediation is a feature that lets you serve ads to your apps from multiple sources, including the AdMob Network, third-party ad networks, and AdMob campaigns. AdMob Mediation helps maximize your fill rate and increase your monetization by sending ad requests to multiple networks to ensure you find the best available network to serve ads. Case study.

This guide is your one-stop shop for integrating mediation into your AdMob app. It covers both Open Bidding (Beta) integrations and waterfall integrations.

Prerequisites

• Before you can integrate mediation for an ad format, you need to integrate that ad format into your app:

  • Banner
  • Interstitial
  • Rewarded
  • Native

• New to mediation? Read Overview of AdMob mediation.

• For Open Bidding: Google Mobile Ads SDK 18.3.0 or higher.

Initialize the Mobile Ads SDK

The quick start guide shows you how to initialize the Mobile Ads SDK. During that initialization call, mediation and open bidding adapters also get initialized. It is important to wait for initialization to complete before you load ads in order to ensure full participation from every ad network on the first ad request.

The sample code below shows how you can check each adapter's initialization status prior to making an ad request.

Java

import com.google.android.gms.ads.MobileAds;
import com.google.android.gms.ads.initialization.AdapterStatus;
import com.google.android.gms.ads.initialization.InitializationStatus;
import com.google.android.gms.ads.initialization.OnInitializationCompleteListener;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        MobileAds.initialize(this, new OnInitializationCompleteListener() {
            @Override
            public void onInitializationComplete(InitializationStatus initializationStatus) {
                Map<String, AdapterStatus> statusMap = initializationStatus.getAdapterStatusMap();
                for (String adapterClass : statusMap.keySet()) {
                    AdapterStatus status = statusMap.get(adapterClass);
                    Log.d("MyApp", String.format(
                            "Adapter name: %s, Description: %s, Latency: %d",
                            adapterClass, status.getDescription(), status.getLatency()));
                }

                // Start loading ads here...
            }
        });
    }
}

Kotlin

import com.google.android.gms.ads.MobileAds

MobileAds.initialize(this) { initializationStatus ->
  val statusMap =
    initializationStatus.adapterStatusMap
  for (adapterClass in statusMap.keys) {
    val status = statusMap[adapterClass]
    Log.d("MyApp", String.format(
      "Adapter name: %s, Description: %s, Latency: %d",
      adapterClass, status!!.description, status.latency))
  }

  // Start loading ads here...
}

Choosing your mediation networks

AdMob mediation supports several ad sources, with a mix of waterfall and Open Bidding integrations. Select an ad source below for integration instructions specific to that ad source.

Ad Source	Banner	Interstitial	Rewarded	Native	Open Bidding (Beta)	ANO support
No third-party SDKs required
Ad Generation						Bidding only
Chocolate Platform						Bidding only
Fluct						Bidding only
Improve Digital						Bidding only
Index Exchange						Bidding only
Media.net						Bidding only
MobFox						Bidding only
OpenX						Bidding only
PubMatic						Bidding only
Rubicon						Bidding only
Sharethrough						Bidding only
Smaato						Bidding only
Sonobi						Bidding only
TripleLift						Bidding only
UnrulyX						Bidding only
Yieldmo						Bidding only
YieldOne						Bidding only
Open source and versioned - 3rd party SDKs required
AdColony						Country-specific
AppLovin						Country-specific
Chartboost						Country-specific
Facebook						Country-specific
Fyber Marketplace						Country-specific
i-mobile						Country-specific
InMobi						Country-specific
ironSource						Country-specific
maio						Global
MoPub						Country-specific
myTarget						Country-specific
nend						Global
Tapjoy						Country-specific
Unity Ads						Country-specific
Verizon Media						Country-specific
Vungle						Country-specific
Non-open source - 3rd party SDKs required
AdFalcon						Country-specific
Flurry						Country-specific
Leadbolt						Country-specific
LG U+AD						None
Tencent GDT						None
Vpon						None
Zucks						Country-specific

Open source and versioned adapters

If an adapter is labeled "Open source and versioned" in the above table, it means the adapter source code is open-sourced in Google's GitHub repository, enabling you to debug issues yourself should you choose to do so.

It also means that there are versioned adapter builds in Google's bintray repository, built against a specific version of the third-party ad network SDK. You can also integrate these adapters into your app with a single line change to your app's build.gradle file. Click on a specific ad network's guide for more details.

Adapter versioning

The adapter versioning scheme for versioned adapters is <third-party SDK version>.<adapter patch version>. For example, if an ad network releases a new SDK version 1.2.3, a new adapter version 1.2.3.0 will be released to Bintray after being tested against that new SDK.

If an adapter needs updating outside the lifecycle of a third-party SDK release, the patch version will increase. A bug fix for adapter version 1.2.3.0 will be released in version 1.2.3.1.

ANO support

When you configure multiple ad networks for mediation, you have to specify what order to request these networks by setting their respective CPM. This can be difficult to manage, since ad network performance changes over time.

Ad network optimization (ANO) is a feature that enables you to generate the highest CPM from the ad networks in your mediation chain by automating the process of ordering the mediation chain to maximize revenue.

The mediation networks table above uses the following values for ANO support:

ANO support	What it means
Bidding only	The ad network only participates in Open Bidding. ANO support is not applicable.
Country-specific	eCPM values are automatically updated on your behalf on a per-country basis. This is the optimal type of optimization.
Global	A single global eCPM value is automatically updated on your behalf.
None	You must manually configure an eCPM value for that ad network.

Click on a specific ad network's guide for details on how to configure ANO for that network.

Note: Only ad networks that are Open source and versioned have specific instructions for setting up ANO on that network.

Custom events

If you're looking for an ad network and don't see it on the list above, you can use custom events to write your own integration with that ad network. See Custom Events for more details on how to create a custom event.

Note: Custom events do not have ANO support.

Check which ad network adapter class loaded the ad

Here is some sample code that logs the ad network class name for a banner ad:

Java

public void onAdLoaded() {
  Log.d("Banner adapter class name: " + ad.getResponseInfo().getMediationAdapterClassName());
}

Kotlin

override fun onAdLoaded() {
  Log.d("Banner adapter class name:" + ad.responseInfo.mediationAdapterClassName)
}

Refer to the ResponseInfo documentation on getMediationAdapterClassName() for details about this method.

Initialize your ad object with an Activity instance

In the constructor for a new ad object (for example, AdView), you must pass in an object of type Context. This Context is passed on to other ad networks when using mediation. Some ad networks require a more restrictive Context that is of type Activity and may not be able to serve ads without an Activity instance. Therefore, we recommend passing in an Activity instance when initializing ad objects to ensure a consistent experience with your mediated ad networks.

Banner ads mediation

Make sure to disable refresh in all third-party ad networks UI for banner ad units used in AdMob mediation. This will prevent a double refresh since AdMob also triggers a refresh based on your banner ad unit's refresh rate.

Rewarded ads mediation

We recommend that you override all default reward values by setting reward values in the AdMob UI. To do this, select the Apply to all networks in Mediation groups box so that the reward is consistent across all networks. Some ad networks don't provide a reward value or type at all. By overriding the reward value, the reward is consistent no matter which ad network served the ad.

For more information on setting reward values in the AdMob UI, refer to create a rewarded ad unit.

Native ads mediation

The following are some best practices to consider when implementing native mediation.

Native ad presentation policy

Each ad network has its own policies. When using mediation, it's important to remember that your app still needs to abide by the policies of the mediated network that provided the ad.

Use loadAd() instead of loadAds()

The loadAds() method currently serves only Google ads. For mediated ads, use loadAd() instead.

Open Bidding troubleshooting

When integrating an Open Bidding partner that requires their SDK, the following symptoms indicate an improper integration:

• The Open Bidding Report shows significantly fewer ad requests to that partner than you expect.
• The a3p parameter in any request after the first ad request is missing or is short (30 characters or less)

Key Point: The first ad request always contains the a3p parameter regardless of whether you have configured Open Bidding.

Follow this checklist to make sure your setup is correct:

• In the AdMob UI, your AdMob ad unit targets a mediation group that has an Open Bidding entry configured for that third-party ad network.
• In the AdMob UI, your AdMob ad unit belongs to the same AdMob app ID that you passed to the Google Mobile Ads SDK.
• You initialized the mobile ads SDK, and verified the adapter status is READY prior to loading an ad.